Grandly Writing Standards

Word count per article is 325-375 words. It is OK to submit longer articles. We can edit them down.

Our Style

Strategic is a key word for us. Strategic is more comprehensive and long-term than intentional. Intentional is simpler, often focused on one act. Like purposeful, strategic is goal oriented, but strategic is includes not just the goal but has a practical mindset on how to get there.

Most of our articles are aimed at grandparents of children between 7 and 17.

Still, we make exceptions and have articles about reading bible stories to four-year-olds, or about helping a post-college grandson make a career decision.

Babies need hugs, feeding, love. We love them but the “strategic” part of grandparenting for infants is somewhat limited.

We want to appeal to people from all church backgrounds. That doesn’t mean you can’t use the words Mass or Preacher, but avoid being more church-specific than is necessary.

Titles should be clever but closely related to the main point of the article.

Focus: make one point or at most two in an article.

Make your main point stick as the last short paragraph, possibly saying the point just a little differently.

An article on making one point could look like this. Title: Here’s The Point. Body: only make one point per article. Last Sentence: If they finish reading and think, “Now! That’s a great point.” You have written a good article.

Writing

Use short sentences rather than long.

Use the active voice not passive.

No acronyms or jargon.

We try to avoid using bold, italic, or ALL CAPS just for emphasis.

We use lowercase divine pronouns just like most Bibles and prayer books.

The numbers one to twelve are spelled. The numbers 13 to 999 are numerals. Try not to begin a sentence with a numeral. Larger numbers we will decide on in situ.

Use a grammar and spell checker before submitting an article. Microsoft Word has one.

Rights

We will edit articles to meet our standards.

Editing that is exact, accurate, and “not false” all meet our standards.

By mistake, we might edit in a way that “falsifies” the story . We are happy to make the changes necessary.

Expect that we might change your point. Usually, we will ask “Do you want to remain the author?” If not, say so.

We love writers who need little editing! We are happy to rewrite great stories for you.

Grandly owns the rights to articles we publish. We will promote you, our writers, to the public whenever we can!

Your article should include your bio at the end. Give us your name, how many grandchildren you have, and where you live in that order. You can say more but typically that is all we use for an article’s author.

Writing advice

We have five categories of articles. Most people will write testimonies.

Testimony: this is the most common type of article. Tell the story. Give the background, what you, they or God did, and what difference it made.

Motivation: this teaching but aimed at the heart as much as the head. Example: We need hope! What is it? How to have it.

Understanding youth: typically written by those more in touch with youth culture, often providing recent scientific discoveries about youth, insights into culture, modern influences.

Tools: these are tools we provide to grandparents: links to great websites, lists of great books, ways to do intercession, games to play with nine-year-olds, how to use a particular technology such as Instagram or Facetime.

Expert Advice: this will contain pastoral advice on specific “cases” raised by grandparents. It can be anything from movie reviews to how to help a recently divorced daughter raise her grandson.